Falcons Promote Collins to Outside Linebackers Coach

Picking up on the previous report that the Atlanta Falcons had hired a brand new defensive assistant in Andrew Thacker, Alex Marvez of FOX Sports reports that the team is promoting current defensive assistant Mark Collins to outside linebackers coach.

Collins first joined the Falcons in 2010, spending the bulk of his time assisting defensive line coach Ray Hamilton. Prior to his time in Atlanta, Collins spent several years as an assistant at various colleges. He worked under Falcons previous defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder at Georgia Southern in 2006. He spent two years following that as a graduate assistant at Georgia, before coaching safeties at Louisiana-Monroe. He was then hired by The Citadel as that team’s defensive coordinator before changing his mind and joining the Falcons.

Collins’ past has seen him working with several different elements of defenses, having spent time coaching linebackers, defensive linemen, safeties and special teams during his decade of coaching in the college ranks. Collins went to East Tennessee State and upon graduation in 1999 began his coaching career as a defensive assistant.